1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method and arrangement for manipulation of the content of a data memory by a processing device that can be connected with the data memory to manipulate at least one first memory range of the data memory, the processing device monitoring a monitoring range of the first memory range, with a state progression thereof allowing termination of the manipulation of the first memory range to be detected.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In mobile applications or applications of particularly small construction, solid-state memories (such as, for example, flash memories) are frequently used. These flash memories have the advantage of being a non-volatile memory that is freely addressable like a volatile working memory, for example a RAM module.
Conventional flash memories are divided into a series of sectors that, as needed, can have different sizes. Although a blank flash memory normally can be written on a byte-by-byte basis for deletion (erasure) the entire sector must always be deleted. Upon re-writing such a flash memory, the entire appertaining sector therefore must initially be deleted before it can be re-written.
Should a flash memory be manipulated, for example deleted or written, the termination of the manipulation can be established using the state of what is known as the toggle bit of the appertaining sector. During the manipulation the state of the toggle bit continuously jumps back and forth. If the toggle bit assumes a temporally stable state, the manipulation is finished (concluded).
If a processing device in the form of a conventional processor with a cache memory as a buffer is used for manipulation of the flash memory, into which buffer the contents of the appertaining sector to be manipulated would normally be read, this cache memory normally must be deactivated upon manipulation of the appertaining sector. Only by this means, for monitoring, the toggle bit of the appertaining sector can actually be read (therewith detecting the actual completion of the manipulation) from the flash memory and not from the cache memory can be established. This has the disadvantage that the cache memory is at that point no longer available to support the execution of the manipulation process, such that a comparably long processing time results for the manipulation.